Alfahobbies

Realize your creativity

Alfahobbies

The Alfamill is a great open source benchtop milling machine that is adaptable to what you want it to be. The design of this machine makes is easy to adapt different heads to it. In the plans there is a mount for a Hitachi router. This router is one of the quietest routers out there. It has a spindle speed of 8000 – 24000 RPM and can take cutters from 1/8″ – 1/2″ diameter when using collets from precise bits. This gives the machine the ability to cut aluminum, wood and all kinds of plastics. Cutting other metals beyond aluminum would be best served using a slower speed milling head. This is something that I am working on right now and it should expand the types of materials the machine can cut. But there is nothing stopping you from adapting other milling heads to this machine.

All the above is just the start of the good things about this machine. The main structure of the machine is made of 80/20 extrusions. These extrusions make this design much stronger than other bench-top machines in its class. Whenever I run this machine I am impressed how little vibration there is in the machine compared to other small benchtop machines I have owned in the past. This is due to the webbed structure of the 80/20 extrusions and the Alfahobbies linear bearings that all axis travel on. These extrusions also make this machine easy to move around. The weight with the parts shown in these plans is around 60 lbs. Nice easy machine to put where ever you want It.